Crohn's Disease, What helps!!

[Aunt Sue]

My financee, Scott, who is now 53, was diagnosed with Crohn's three years ago. He has a moderate case this disease which is located primarily in the bottom 3rd of his intestinal track. He has an internal hemmorid, which bleeds and informs him that his symptoms are getting worse. He has had infections that have led to fevers, chills and spending more time in the bathroom.

He has a good doctor, but I am looking for some advice on how to deal with this because both of us are waiting for him to reach remission. This time he has had an active case since last June.

I would appreciate any feedback I can get.

Thank you.

[lodgen]

you need to see a gi doctor or colorectal surgen,they will look at the situation
and determine the solution. first they will do a colooscopy,which i think you had to find out you had crohns,they will give you medicne for it , then if
that does not work,you need to take remecade which will hopefully put it
in remission. if that does not work an operation to remove the infected part
of the intestines will be removed.diet varies form person to person,fatty foods
and gases foods should be avoided had hemorrhoids surgery and its painfull period,but if the internal is bad it should be looked at by a colorectal surgeon.
you must address the crohn's first,once its in remission or better,then you fix the hemriod,ointmints and baths can help but the fever ,chills and going to the washroom mostly cause the problem.crohns is nasty to have and you
have to have courage and keep pressing the doctor for solutions to help.
there are good websites for crohn's on the web ,there a lots of information.
good luck

[cheeps]

The Cleveland Clinic has excellent gastro drs if you need another opinion and can get there. They also have a question website.

[Art_930]

Against all odds, I've been in remission from Crohn's for several years now. I credit my high intake of Vitamin C.

I'm not a doctor (and don't play one on tv), but I did some research and decided that high doses of Vitamin C wouldn't hurt. What I did was to start out with 1000mg every day. I did that for a couple of weeks after my last resection. Then I went to 2000mg for a few weeks, then 3000mg for another few weeks. I got up to 5,000mg a day and stayed there for about a year. During that time I was also on prednisone and methylprednisolone and who knows what else and achieved remission.

When I came off the drugs I continued with the Vitamin C and am currently taking 1000mg daily. I eat normal foods including the things we're not supposed to be able to eat. My GI doc just says "whatever works for you" and lets me be, but he's happy that I'm a low maintenance patient at this point.

[NicaM]

I understand your pain. I have had active chrons for 9 years. Here is the treatments I have been on in the past. Maybe something will help you.

1. Asacol /Colozoral

2. Heavy dosage of Prednizone. ( be careful with this one. Long term steriod use causes more problems then it solves, as I found out)

3. Immuran ( "slight" chance of pancreantitis (sp) I was a lucky one who got it)

4. Methotrexate ( nasty drug but induces most who can tolerate it into remission)

5. Remicade ( I could not tolerate this med either)

What I do now when I am starting a severe flare up is go on a liquid diet for 2-3 days. They have boost without the milk products in them that seem to work well. Another tactic is to up your fluid intake or go have an iv done with 2-3 bags. It seems to aleviate some of the discomfort.
You may also want to look into some kind of pain management. The best discription I Have for a chrons flare up is like being in labor for days. my doctors have put me on everything from percoset to vicodin to Bowel relaxer medications .

Fish oil seems to help along with a regular dose of probitoics. ( get them from a health food store and they should be refridgerated) Yogurt is a good source of them also if you prefer a more natural approch.

You also need to start looking at what foods make the symptoms worse. for me its anything with high fiber or any raw vegetables. Also very fatty foods can aggrivate symptoms. It seems that the diet changes for everyone with chrons.

On another note. Doctors have recently found a new gene that chrons patients have. They are optimistic that they can help find a cure with this new information. Actually treat the disease not just the symptoms.

I wish you luck in helping him through this process and I hope my information helped somewhat.

NicaM